The present invention relates to apparatus for removing rod-shaped articles from magazines. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for removing rod-shaped articles from magazines in tobacco processing machines, e.g., from the magazine which forms part of a filter cigarette making machine. The commodities which can be manipulated in the apparatus of the present invention include plain or filter-tipped cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos, filter rod sections and/or any other rod-shaped articles which constitute or form part of smokers' products.
It is already known to store filter rod sections or analogous rod-shaped articles in a magazine wherein two walls flank an outlet disposed above a portion of a rotary drum-shaped conveyor whose flutes serve to remove articles from the magazine for further processing, for example, to remove filter rod sections from the magazine of a filter cigarette making machine wherein the sections are thereupon subdivided to yield shorter sections which are assembled with plain cigarettes to form filter cigarettes of unit length or multiple unit length. It is further customary to use in such machines a rotary refuser roller which is disposed between the conveyor and that wall of the magazine which is adjacent to the downstream end of the outlet. The purpose of the refuser roller is to prevent evacuation of those articles which are not received in the flutes of the conveyor as well as to reduce the likelihood of a pileup of articles in the region where successive flutes of the conveyor move beyond the outlet of the magazine. Articles which leave the magazine without being received in the flutes of the conveyor cannot be controlled and are likely to clog the machine, to be fragmentized and to thus contaminate the machine, to cause breakage or deformation of sensitive parts and/or to result in the making of unsatisfactory smokers' products. It has been found that filter rod sections are especially likely to clog the outlet of the magazine in a machine for the making of filter cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars. This is due to the fact that the surplus of adhesive paste which is used to form the seams of wrappers of filter rod sections is likely to remain active after the respective sections are introduced into the magazine, and such surplus tends to bond the wrappers of two or more neighboring sections to each other. If the bond between two or more neighboring filter rod sections is sufficiently strong, a section which is properly received in the flute of the aforementioned conveyor is likely to entrain one or more additional sections with the result that the additional section or sections are squashed during passage along the refuser roller and contaminate and/or otherwise affect the operation of the machine. Belated detection of improperly evacuated filter rod sections can result in substantial damage to and in greatly reduced output of the machine. Thus, it often takes a long period of time before the attendants detect an improperly evacuated filter rod section, especially if such section is permitted to advance into a portion of the machine which is not readily accessible or, if accessible, does not allow for rapid and convenient removal of improperly evacuated and transported sections.
While the aforementioned refuser roller normally prevents uncontrolled evacuation of rod-shaped articles which are not received in the flutes of the conveyor, such roller is not sufficiently reliable, especially under the aforediscussed circumstances when the surplus of adhesive paste on one or more sections of a filter rod bonds the respective section or sections to the wrappers of neighboring sections with a substantial force.